Only Media Matters can bury the lede of their latest Christian-bashing missive five graphs down into a story. After starting one story on Tim Tebow, the article plunges headfirst off the cliff into insanity by switching gears and blaming poverty in America on … Christians:
… but as the network exaggerates the threat to Christianity in America, it simultaneously downplays — even mocks — the very real plight facing those whom Christian teachings demand be shown compassion: the poor.I love when progressives pause their Bible-bashing long enough to pose as sudden experts on Scripture. Oh please, let’s do this. (You’ll see my reason why at the end.)
Poverty in the U.S. is on the rise. Incomes are decreasing. According to the Census Bureau, right now there are over 46 million Americans in poverty, more than there have been at any time since they started publishing poverty estimates. Fifteen percent of U.S. households are “food insecure,” meaning they lack money to properly feed themselves on a daily basis. They face a host of problems, both quantifiable and not: lack of access to health care, chronic underemployment, disrupted family life, and so on.
But to hear Fox News tell it, the poor don’t have it so bad. Earlier this year, the conservative Heritage Foundation released a report on how the ownership of household appliances demonstrates that “most of the persons whom the government defines as ‘in poverty’ are not poor in any ordinary sense of the term.” Seizing on Heritage’s laughably superficial assessment of poverty, Bill O’Reilly asked: “How can you be so poor and have all this stuff?”
1) “Poverty in the U.S. is on the rise. Incomes are decreasing. According to the Census Bureau, right now there are over 46 million Americans in poverty, more than there have been at any time since they started publishing poverty estimates.”
And when did this start exactly? The answer: with this administration. Remember when Newt Gingrich called Obama the “food stamp president?” While the Dixified minds of dog whistle progressives are certain that “food stamps” is code for “black people,” the reality is that more white Americans are on food stamps–in fact, more Americans, period, are receiving government assistance now than ever:
A record 18.3% of the nation’s total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010. Wages accounted for the lowest share of income — 51.0% — since the government began keeping track in 1929.More:
The income data show how fragile and government-dependent the recovery is after a recession that officially ended in June 2009.
Americans on the government dole received an average of $7,427 each in benefits in 2010, up from an inflation-adjusted $4,763 in 2000 and $3,686 in 1990. Thus, benefits have more than doubled in the last 20 years! Keep in mind that the federal government pays about 90% of these benefits.How can this be? Under the Obama administration, families have watched jobs disappear, incomes shrink, food and gas prices rise, and the economy downgraded for the first time in a century.
While Media Matters is approaching Scripture from a petty and uneducated perspective (and attempting to use the spectre of knowledge to shame conservatives for not following a Marxist and decidedly anti-Christian ideology) I sincerely hope it turns into a genuine curiosity. If they must first mock it just to step a foot over the threshold, I’ll accept that, too, but I consider the issue a victory simply because they’re even discussing it.
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
- 2 Thessalonians 3:10
As expected, Loesch baselessly accused "Liberals of practicing an anti-Christian ideology." Last time I checked, Dana, Liberals/Progressives like me are far from anti-Christian.
The REAL truth by MMFA's Simon Maloy:
"WAR ON TEBOW" declared Fox News' The Five on Tuesday as the panel of four conservatives and Bob Beckel launched into a discussion of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and his frequent public declarations of his Christian faith. "What do you think scares the media most?" asked Eric Bolling. "The clean-cut, the conservative, or the Christian aspect of Tim Tebow?" GOP strategist Andrea Tantaros opined that "it's ridiculous to go after Tim Tebow. He can express whatever he wants and it takes a lot of courage to put Bible verses on your face."
The trials of Tebow have been well-covered by the Murdoch network. Yesterday, Fox News' unofficial culture war correspondent Todd Starnes wrote that Tebow "will always be a lightning rod for anti-Christian bigots," and expanded the narrative to declare that "it's become something of a sport to attack Christians in this nation," what with the "reprehensible anti-Christian propaganda" coming from Hollywood and the almost-beyond-parody "War on Christmas." Starnes even went so far as to compare the Tebow situation to Jim Crow.
The position of Fox News is clear: Christians in America are relentlessly persecuted and need Fox News as an advocate. The hitch, of course, is that Christianity remains the overwhelmingly dominant faith not just of the nation at large but also of the people elected to lead it. But the culture war needs to be fought, so insults aimed at a football player, store clerks saying "Happy Holidays," and similarly minor (or imagined) slights are embellished into organized campaigns of anti-Christian persecution.
That in and of itself is disingenuous, but as the network exaggerates the threat to Christianity in America, it simultaneously downplays -- even mocks -- the very real plight facing those whom Christian teachings demand be shown compassion: the poor.
Poverty in the U.S. is on the rise. Incomes are decreasing. According to the Census Bureau, right now there are over 46 million Americans in poverty, more than there have been at any time since they started publishing poverty estimates. Fifteen percent of U.S. households are "food insecure," meaning they lack money to properly feed themselves on a daily basis. They face a host of problems, both quantifiable and not: lack of access to health care, chronic underemployment, disrupted family life, and so on.
But to hear Fox News tell it, the poor don't have it so bad. Earlier this year, the conservative Heritage Foundation released a report on how the ownership of household appliances demonstrates that "most of the persons whom the government defines as 'in poverty' are not poor in any ordinary sense of the term." Seizing on Heritage's laughably superficial assessment of poverty, Bill O'Reilly asked: "How can you be so poor and have all this stuff?"
It's a striking contrast. One day Fox News will defend Christians from the faith-killing scourge of Rhode Island "Holiday Trees," and the next they'll mock those in need for having refrigerators but lacking "spirit." They'll insist on protecting the right to say Christian prayers in public, and attack a poor person for spending all their money at Wal-Mart. It's a clash of faith and politics that does double harm by hyping illusory threats to an empowered majority while obfuscating real problems plaguing the millions of Americans most in need of a little Christian charity.
The Wingnuts' "War on Christmas" screed (aided by Fixed Noise and the Christian Right, such as the American ChristoFascist Association) has gone on for the past few years, demonizing any store or person who does not toe the "Merry Christmas"-only folks viewpoint-- for example: says or puts the words "Happy Holidays," "Season's Greetings," "Holiday Trees," and basically anything other than "Merry Christmas" in ads.
For example, Fox and Friends host and serial liar Gretchen Carlson misleadingly stated "that she won't be able to light Christmas decorations at my own home." This is coming from the same person who infamously said that "I'm all for free speech and free rights, just not on Christmas Day."
From the 12.09.2011 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
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